‘American Gothic’ Showrunner on Why the Set Is Like a ‘Massive Game of Clue’

“The fun of shooting is that they can all kind of look at each other with suspicion,” Corinne Brinkerhoff tells TheWrap about keeping the mystery going even for the cast

Coming off of light-hearted dramedy “Jane The Virgin,” CBS’ serial killer drama “American Gothic” seemed like a swerve for writer/producer Corinne Brinkerhoff, but the first-time showrunner tells TheWrap that the two have more in common than you might think.

“Believe it or not there’s actually quite a bit of comedy in ‘American Gothic,’” she said. “I know it sounds illogical, but I think one of the ways people deal with traumatic situations is with gallows humor. It’s certainly what I do, and I love that.”

The CBS summer series is about a prominent Boston family that discovers its newly deceased patriarch (Jamey Sheridan) may have been a notorious serial killer, and that his widow (Virginia Madsen) or one of his four adult children may have been his longtime accomplice.

Below, Brinkerhoff describes her first outing as a showrunner, how she ended up being an executive producer on two shows at once, and how the mystery of “American Gothic” remains elusive, even for the cast.